Intraday Trading
When I was an active intraday trader, one of the things that was most important to me was having a rough roadmap for the day: what is most likely to happen, based on the current market structure and most likely emerging volatility conditions. This is the same concept that I&
Chart of the Day
* Momentum begets momentum—selling, usually, leads to further selling. Yesterday sent a loud and clear warning to bears in US stocks: there is a lot of hidden bullish conviction. The rally was, statistically speaking, the least likely outcome following Tuesday’s decline, and the message of that decline demands attention.
Podcast
Short term trading, intraday trading, daytrading--call it what you will, these styles of trading bring some unique challenges. Tools and approaches that work in other timeframes also work intraday, but applying them requires a different mindset and attitude toward risk. For the next few weeks, my blog will be focusing
Chart of the Day
* Yesterday's play was to not fade a break, up or down. This turned out to be correct, as the market gapped lower on the open, and did not look back throughout the day—ending in a volatile downtrend day for the entire session. * Assume bearish mode for the
Chart of the Day
This post is the first in a series I will be extending for a week or two, focusing on short-term and intraday trading. Each day, I will be publishing a chart of the day that focuses on the best short-term ideas and setups I see in the US stock index
General Comments
Over the past few days, I've written a bit about trading macro events and reports, and I also did a podcast episode on the subject. I shared some ideas about the kinds of events we are talking about (and today's looming FOMA at 14:00 EDT
Podcast
Every day, we are hit with economic reports, earnings for stocks, speculation, opinion, and a flood of other information. Some of these events move markets; some are non-events. How can we manage the volatility around these reports and what do they mean for the tactical/technical trader? Continuing from this
General Comments
There are so many things we can't predict; surprises, good and bad, happen. Sometimes these surprises can have a dramatic impact on our positions. One of the core tasks of trading is to respond to new developments and shifts in the market, but it's also important
Anti
Gaps are important. Gaps on charts can show powerful shifts in market dynamics, and we can identify some interesting tendencies around these gaps. Intraday traders often find an edge in fading gaps, but let's look today what happens over a longer time span. Consider the daily chart of
Podcast
Three more reader questions this week: how do we deal with runs of wins and losses? What about applying technicals to non-linear (or derived time series), and how do we translate trading strategies to options from the underlying instruments? Alan asks: Hi Adam, hope all is well. I was mulling
Trader Development
You have to be a disciplined trader. This is one of the nuggets of trading wisdom we hear constantly, and for good reason--it's true. Without discipline, we will make many mistakes in the highly competitive market environment. But it's not as simple as saying to yourself
Technical Patterns
Richard Wyckoff was one of the founding fathers of technical analysis, and one of his most useful concepts was to divide the market into an idealized cycle of accumulation, mark-up, distribution, and markdown. Though it can be difficult to apply this model in actual trading, it has many important lessons